


You Will Learn, In Time

by Wei (wei_jiangling)



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Background Reylo, Canon Compliant, Family Reunions, Force Ghost(s), Gen, TRoS Spoilers, at least on Ben's side
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-11
Updated: 2020-01-11
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:33:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22204900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wei_jiangling/pseuds/Wei
Summary: A post-TROS Ben Solo has a much needed reunion with his grandfather's ghost.
Relationships: Ben Solo & Darth Vader
Comments: 3
Kudos: 23





	You Will Learn, In Time

The last thing Ben remembered was warm lips against his. Warm arms around him. The cold floor of the cavern against his back, and then, for a length of time he couldn't begin to guess, nothing. 

The next thing he became aware of was a hand reaching out toward him. Everything around him was translucent, sparkling, except for that hand. It wasn't hers. It belonged to a man he had no memory of ever seeing before, looking down at him expectantly, but with kindness--perhaps even fondness--in his eyes. Ben propped himself up on one arm, eyebrow raised as he scrutinized this unfamiliar face. There was, paradoxically, something familiar about it. 

"Who are you?"

The man looked back at him, unfazed, as if he had completely expected that question. He returned one of his own. "You don't recognize me without the mask, do you?" 

It took a second for the recognition of what that meant to dawn on Ben's face. "Grandfather," he said, halfway a question, and the man nodded in reply, then offered his hand again. This time, Ben took it, taking in his surroundings more fully as he stood. He was exactly where he last remembered being, but it was different now. Less tangible. The pieces began to connect in his mind. "Is this what death is like?"

"At first. It may change, once you stop thinking as if you have a body," he said, letting the implication that the hand Ben held was for nothing more than current convenience hang in the air. He let go of it, dropping his arm back to his side. "You will learn, in time. You will also learn how to make yourself visible to the living again," he explained, and then added with a knowing look, "So you will be able to see her again, if you want." 

"So you saw." 

"I have seen a lot. Actually, I have been watching you for years. It would have been difficult not to, with how many times you called for my attention." 

Ben's face contorted at that last, thinking of how many times he had spoken to that mask, unsure whether or not anyone was listening. But then he caught his grandfather's eyes, half questioning, half accusing. "If you could make yourself visible to the living, why didn't you ever respond?"

"You wouldn't let me." He held Ben's gaze, letting that statement sink in before he turned away, pacing a few steps as he continued. "You apologised to me, for feeling a pull toward the light. Do you remember?" He turned to face Ben again. "What would you have done, had I appeared to tell you not to apologise? To follow that pull, instead? I have learned a lot since my time as Vader, but I could not share with you a voice you weren't willing to hear.

"But I did watch, and I did listen. You wanted to do what I failed to do, didn't you?"

Ben had stayed silent while his grandfather spoke, and at that question, he turned away, hands curling into uneasy fists. He had realised, by now, how much of that had been manipulation. And yet, he was the one who had claimed it, for years. After everything his grandfather had just said, how could he feel anything but horribly wrong for it? 

"I thought so," he finally said, meeting his grandfather's gaze once more. "But really it was Snoke--and Palpatine--who wanted-" 

Anakin dismissed the rest of that thought with a wave of his hand. "You did." Ben fell quiet, giving him a look that thoroughly sufficed as a question. So he continued with an answer. "In the end, you did what I could not. You saved the woman you loved." 

For a long moment, Ben stared at him, trying and failing to fit that sentence into anything he had ever been told about the man standing in front of him. He knew about Darth Vader. He knew about the Empire. He knew about the Dark Side. He did not have the slightest idea what any of it had to do with him saving Rey. "I don't know anything about you, do I?" he concluded, leading to the faintest hint of a chuckle from his grandfather. 

"No, not really."

Of course, that only made sense. If Ben could be something very different from Kylo Ren, then so too could Anakin Skywalker be something very different from Darth Vader. He was only beginning now to figure out who Ben was. It was only fitting that he found himself suddenly wanting to know more about Anakin. 

"Tell me," he said. 

"Alright," his grandfather agreed. "We have time."

**Author's Note:**

> I made up a bunch of things about what death is like for force-aligned folks in this universe, but hopefully it all makes enough sense. I kind of am enjoying the idea that they all have to have one of the past Jedi come and teach them how to do the force ghost thing and whatever else. Also that they have to get over thinking corporeally, because he absolutely dissolved from reality but of course when he regained consciousness, he still thought he was laying on the floor. Knowing this expanded universe, there's probably something somewhere that contradicts me on this, but I don't care.


End file.
